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Mat 25:46. Ἀπελεύσονται, shall depart) The place of judgment is distinct from the places into which the two classes will severally depart.-κόλασις, punishment[1105]) There is a difference between τιμωρία, vengeance, and κόλασις, punishment; for punishment is inflicted for the sake of him who suffers: vengeance for the satisfaction of him who inflicts it; see Arist. Rhet. i. 10, n. 31.[1106]-αἰώνιον, eternal) Eternal[1107] signifies that which reaches and passes the limits of earthly time: cf. Gnomon on Rom 16:25.-οἱ δὲ, κ.τ.λ., but the, etc.) Christ the King shall first address the righteous, in the hearing of the unrighteous; but the unrighteous shall first depart, in the sight of the righteous; see ch. Mat 13:49-50. Thus the damned will see nothing of eternal life, though the righteous will see the vengeance inflicted on the damned.-ΔΊΚΑΙΟΙ, righteous) declared to be so by this very judgment.
[1105] “Of fire, see Mat 25:41. Righteous King, grant that I may hereafter find myself standing on the right hand.”-B. G. V.
[1106] In the Oxford edition of 1833, I. 10, § 17.-I. B.
[1107] The Bible has no metaphysical distinctions, therefore it has no one word to express eternity; this it expresses by long periods joined with one another indefinitely. Αἰῶνες = עו̇לָמִים, æva: very long periods, which, multiplied indefinitely, give the only notion we can form of eternity. Ὡρα (Th. ὃρος, terminus), a definite space of time: καιρὸς, the time, the fit time: χρόνος, time, in its actuality, marking succession: αἰὼν, an indefinite course of time, without the notion of an end. See Tittm. Syn. Gr. Test. Ἀπʼ αἰώνων = from all eternity, a parte ante. Εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας = to all eternity, for ages, for ever, a parte post. As these phrases are applied to the eternity of God Himself, and as, moreover, αἰώνιος is applied to ζωὴ, which none deny to mean everlasting life, no objections (such as have been lately raised), from the meaning of αἰὼν, will hold good against the everlasting duration of punishment.-ED.